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Doom as Test Prize

 Doom as Test Prize
type
FeatureClass
 Doom as Test Prize
label
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize
page
DoomAsTestPrize
 Doom as Test Prize
comment
Sometimes, passing a test or winning a competitive event turns out to provide a "reward" that the winners would never want. In short, it's Schmuck Bait, but you had to earn it. Its purpose may be to identify people who need to be dealt with because they're powerful enough to threaten the setter, or to select people who would be suitable for a job they'd never take willingly, for enslavement, or for dismantling.
If this is discovered before completion, may lead to Springtime for Hitler. Sister trope to Lottery of Doom, where the "winners" are chosen by chance rather than ability, and Morton's Fork, where passing or failing the test both result in death (or some other nasty punishment). If the test is intellectual, this can be the dark subversion of Only Smart People May Pass. Compare Condemned Contestant, where the competition is something you end up in after learning that you're doomed. Frequently qualifies as Schmuck Bait. See Earn Your Bad Ending for many video game cases.
Compare The Cake Is a Lie. For broader (and less lethal) examples of rewards that the winner regrets getting, see Undesirable Prize.
Note that this is often a Reveal trope: expect examples to be spoilers

Examples
 Doom as Test Prize
fetched
2023-07-23T05:44:59Z
 Doom as Test Prize
parsed
2023-07-23T05:44:59Z
 Doom as Test Prize
processingComment
Dropped link to ChildProdigies: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Doom as Test Prize
processingComment
Dropped link to Hellraiser: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Doom as Test Prize
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Doom as Test Prize / int_15c6ea92
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_15c6ea92
comment
Wonder Woman (1987): Hippolyta organizes The Contest to find a new Wonder Woman after having a premonition that Wonder Woman will soon die in the line of duty. The whole thing is orchestrated so that an Amazon other than her daughter will be the one to bite the bullet, and by the time Diana susses out her mother's intentions and goes to try and save the winner, Artemis is already in the fight that will claim her life.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_15c6ea92
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_15c6ea92
featureConfidence
1.0
 Wonder Woman (1987) (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_15c6ea92
 Doom as Test Prize / int_1869a077
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_1869a077
comment
In one episode of Samurai Jack, Jack confronts a two-headed sea monster asking him to solve a riddle, about which one of the heads is telling the truth or lying to him, claiming that they'll grant his wish if he lets himself be eaten by the right head, but simply die if he guesses wrong. After Jack gives the "right" answer, it turns out neither would grant any wish.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_1869a077
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_1869a077
featureConfidence
1.0
 Samurai Jack
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_1869a077
 Doom as Test Prize / int_20e3fd1b
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_20e3fd1b
comment
All the citizens of the valley in Pikuniku are very jealous of Eli when he's chosen by Sunshine Inc. and whisked away for a fabulous free tour of their corporate headquarters! Too bad he's actually been taken as an experimental subject and genetic source for Mr. Sunshine's evil plans...
 Doom as Test Prize / int_20e3fd1b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_20e3fd1b
featureConfidence
1.0
 Pikuniku (Video Game)
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_20e3fd1b
 Doom as Test Prize / int_2212773a
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_2212773a
comment
Angel: In "Provider", a group of Nahdrah demons offer anyone a chance to solve a unique puzzle in their possession. Fred manages to solve it, then it turns out they were looking for an exceptionally smart person so that they could cut off their head and use it to replace the head of their dying prince. Fortunately, Angel and the others rescue her.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_2212773a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_2212773a
featureConfidence
1.0
 Angel
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_2212773a
 Doom as Test Prize / int_31a48eed
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_31a48eed
comment
The Outer Limits (1995): In "Human Trials", a number of candidates are selected for rigorous and nightmarish training for an important government mission. At the end of the story, every single candidate except one has been eliminated, and the people in charge of the test arrive to congratulate him. When the survivor asks what the mission is, they cheerfully tell him that there was no mission. They simply wanted to find a physically and mentally tough candidate that they could subject to painful and hellish experiments to test the limits of the human body. They then proceed to do just that.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_31a48eed
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_31a48eed
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Outer Limits (1995)
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_31a48eed
 Doom as Test Prize / int_32c541e6
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_32c541e6
comment
The State Alchemist program in Fullmetal Alchemist has a rigorous screening process that seemingly rewards the most skilled alchemists with a constant salary in exchange for giving the state their research and occasionally putting their expertise to military use. Its actual purpose is to find five people who have attempted human transmutation and seen the Gate of Truth, then use them for a ritual that will harvest the souls of their entire country (which they'll technically be spared from, but only momentarily).
 Doom as Test Prize / int_32c541e6
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_32c541e6
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1.0
 Fullmetal Alchemist (Manga)
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_32c541e6
 Doom as Test Prize / int_33c1d63d
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_33c1d63d
comment
Nidhogg: The goal of the game is to make it to the other side of the screen, where you are then eaten by the titular creature. Though with how little background we're given, the player characters may have wanted that.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_33c1d63d
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_33c1d63d
featureConfidence
1.0
 Nidhogg (Video Game)
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_33c1d63d
 Doom as Test Prize / int_3828a884
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_3828a884
comment
In Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Pericles has to answer a riddle: answer it right and win the hand of a King's daughter, answer it wrong and die. But it's a Morton's Fork since anyone who correctly answers the riddle discovers that the King is having an incestuous relationship with his daughter, and therefore the King has them killed.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_3828a884
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_3828a884
featureConfidence
1.0
 Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Theatre)
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_3828a884
 Doom as Test Prize / int_3b11106f
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_3b11106f
comment
In Flash Gordon (1980), Ming claims that he subjects planets to induced natural disasters to see if they are capable of recognizing them as an attack and retaliating. If so, they are a threat to him and get destroyed or conquered. (It's possible, though, that he's just saying this to torment Professor Zarkov: the opening scene suggests that he attacked Earth because he was bored.)
 Doom as Test Prize / int_3b11106f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_3b11106f
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1.0
 Flash Gordon (1980)
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_3b11106f
 Doom as Test Prize / int_49ad83ee
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_49ad83ee
comment
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is secretly this for the heroes, since the Lich King's grand plan was to put the heroes through trial after deadly trial until only the strongest remained to face him, then kill them all to serve him as the most powerful group of death knight commanders in history. The heroes do receive their "reward", but of course, things still don't quite work out the way the Lich King planned.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_49ad83ee
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_49ad83ee
featureConfidence
1.0
 World of Warcraft (Video Game)
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_49ad83ee
 Doom as Test Prize / int_4b5dbe41
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_4b5dbe41
comment
In Clerks: The Animated Series, Randal achieves a high score in an arcade game about building pyramids, only to find out that the game is secretly a test to determine the best possible candidates... to be enslaved and forced to build pyramids.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_4b5dbe41
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_4b5dbe41
featureConfidence
1.0
 Clerks: The Animated Series
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_4b5dbe41
 Doom as Test Prize / int_4ba22cc8
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_4ba22cc8
comment
In Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone, the evil cyborg Overdog has built a maze full of deadly traps inside his fortress. Captives are regularly thrown inside and made to run through it. The whole spectacle serves to entertain the crowds, but the twisted game's real purpose is only revealed when heroine Nikki managed to evade all perils and reach the end; she is not freed as promised, but bound to a machine that saps her life energy and transfers it to Overdog's body, making him stronger.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_4ba22cc8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_4ba22cc8
featureConfidence
1.0
 Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_4ba22cc8
 Doom as Test Prize / int_4ce5263e
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_4ce5263e
comment
XCOM: Enemy Unknown: The Alien Invasion is actually a test for humanity set up by the Etherials to learn whether humanity has the technological and psychic potential to serve as their slaves for their (unspecified) goals. To this end, the Etherials have been purposefully feeding humanity their tech and knowledge of psychic powers until humans have surpassed all other races Etherials have previously enslaved. Then, however, their plan has Gone Horribly Right: the humans have become strong enough to kill them all.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_4ce5263e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_4ce5263e
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1.0
 XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Video Game)
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_4ce5263e
 Doom as Test Prize / int_53a0bd8b
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_53a0bd8b
comment
Featured in a Henry Slesar short story called "Examination Day", later made into an episode of the same name for The Twilight Zone (1985). A 12-year-old boy undergoes a mandatory IQ test administered by the government. In the last scene, the parents are notified that the boy exceeded the IQ limit, and are asked how they'd like his remains to be handled.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_53a0bd8b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_53a0bd8b
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Twilight Zone (1985)
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_53a0bd8b
 Doom as Test Prize / int_582ed3cc
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_582ed3cc
comment
In Billy & Mandy’s Big Boogey Adventure, the main characters at one point cannot pass through a gateway until The Gatekeeper has performed "The Test". The Test turns out to be the giant Gatekeeper putting the characters in his mouth. As they taste good enough, they pass the test and have to escape being cooked alive.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_582ed3cc
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_582ed3cc
featureConfidence
1.0
 Billy & Mandy’s Big Boogey Adventure
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_582ed3cc
 Doom as Test Prize / int_61df7ae3
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_61df7ae3
comment
In Island of the Sequined Love Nun islanders who are 'chosen by the goddess' actually have their organs harvested, usually nonfatally.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_61df7ae3
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_61df7ae3
featureConfidence
1.0
 IslandOfTheSequinedLoveNun
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_61df7ae3
 Doom as Test Prize / int_6727ec29
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_6727ec29
comment
The Promised Neverland:
The children of Grace Field House take daily intelligence tests. Ray, Emma, and Norman score perfectly on most of their quizzes and are thus prioritized by the demons living outside of the orphanage to eat. Said demons feed on humans, with smarter and younger victims being more valuable, so Child Prodigies such as these three are highly coveted by the demon elite.
There's also how they scout out new Moms for the orphanages. To qualify, you need adequate grades and a letter of recommendation from their own Mom. Pass, and you get to be fitted with a death switch and thrown into a world of intense competition to become an active Mom, and until you succeed, you're pretty much breeding stock unless somebody needs an assistant.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_6727ec29
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_6727ec29
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Promised Neverland (Manga)
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_6727ec29
 Doom as Test Prize / int_6a989b15
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_6a989b15
comment
In The Tripods, girls who win their villages' beauty contests and are sent to serve the Masters wind up dead and preserved in glass.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_6a989b15
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_6a989b15
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Tripods
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_6a989b15
 Doom as Test Prize / int_6ac55ec7
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_6ac55ec7
comment
In one Dungeons & Dragons setting, there is a fortress in the Abyss that local demon warlords keep fighting over. The legends says that all the current demon lords passed through it at some point and it is regarded as a proving ground where leaders test their skills against each other. The legend is mostly true - but the current demon lords observe the fortress closely, using its legend to spot dangerous competitors early.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_6ac55ec7
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_6ac55ec7
featureConfidence
1.0
 Dungeons & Dragons (Tabletop Game)
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_6ac55ec7
 Doom as Test Prize / int_70da6e51
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_70da6e51
comment
In the Goosebumps book The Horror at Camp Jellyjam, the titular camp encouraged everyone to compete in various games. Those who won enough medals were then kidnapped and forced to wash a giant monster.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_70da6e51
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_70da6e51
featureConfidence
1.0
 Goosebumps
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_70da6e51
 Doom as Test Prize / int_7988cb68
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_7988cb68
comment
In the Mass Effect series, the technological artifacts that allow the development of the titular technology have been planted by the Reapers to identify younger civilisations to be "harvested" and drive their technology in a direction that will make them vulnerable.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_7988cb68
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_7988cb68
featureConfidence
1.0
 Mass Effect (Franchise)
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_7988cb68
 Doom as Test Prize / int_7de6a8a0
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_7de6a8a0
comment
Clonus: Healthy young men and women in an isolated colony are promised the opportunity to move to America if they pass a rigorous physical fitness exam. The actual reward is death so the body can be harvested for organs.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_7de6a8a0
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_7de6a8a0
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1.0
 Clonus
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Doom as Test Prize / int_7de6a8a0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_7f2f55ad
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_7f2f55ad
comment
In the "Kitchen Irish" arc of The Punisher MAX, a very misanthropic elderly Irish-American gangster leaves what is rumoured to be a hoard of treasure to various separate Irish gangs in his neighbourhood, giving each of them part of the geographical location in the hope that they'll kill each other over it. After much violence and death, the survivors finally do decide to get together and go to split the hoard peacefully. Whereupon it turns out to be a huge bomb that explodes and kills them all. Leaving them just enough time to read the word "CUNTS" scratched into the plastic explosive charge.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_7f2f55ad
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_7f2f55ad
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Punisher MAX (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_7f2f55ad
 Doom as Test Prize / int_7fa5de56
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_7fa5de56
comment
In one episode of Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling, both Junkyard Dog and Rowdy Roddy Piper show up at a film shoot to have their distinctive cars appear in the movie. The director has them race for the role. Piper, with the other wrestling heels, cheats his way to victory and gets his car in the movie. The scene is shot and the car is destroyed. And yes, that was how the scene was supposed to go.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_7fa5de56
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_7fa5de56
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1.0
 Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_7fa5de56
 Doom as Test Prize / int_81706932
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_81706932
comment
In The Running Man, it turns out that the surviving ("winning") contestants on the titular game show aren't actually pardoned and released to a life of luxury, but instead they just get executed off-screen, with their corpses hidden away.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_81706932
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_81706932
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Running Man
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_81706932
 Doom as Test Prize / int_87e00d8e
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_87e00d8e
comment
One episode of Teen Titans (2003) has Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg summoned to a mysterious arena, along with many other male heroes and villains to compete for a mysterious "prize". In fact, the alien who summoned them there is simply stealing the powers of everyone who loses so that he can have all their powers for himself. After he's defeated, Raven, Starfire, and all the other female heroes and villains get summoned.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_87e00d8e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_87e00d8e
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1.0
 Teen Titans (2003)
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_87e00d8e
 Doom as Test Prize / int_9a7088bc
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_9a7088bc
comment
In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Arena", according to Word of God, the Forced Prize Fight was indeed a Secret Test, but not quite as it comes across. The script includes a bit of dialogue (not aired, but included in James Blish's novelization) which reveals that the Metrons had planned to destroy the winner of the fight rather than the loser, considering the winner to be a bigger threat to them. Ultimately subverted, as they are impressed when Kirk refuses to kill his downed opponent.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_9a7088bc
featureApplicability
-0.3
 Doom as Test Prize / int_9a7088bc
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1.0
 Star Trek: The Original Series
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_9a7088bc
 Doom as Test Prize / int_a49658cd
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_a49658cd
comment
In The Historian, all of the clues to Dracula's survival and whereabouts turn out to have been deliberately planted so that he can identify gifted researchers to be either recruited or vampirised and enslaved.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_a49658cd
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_a49658cd
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1.0
 The Historian
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_a49658cd
 Doom as Test Prize / int_a7c71872
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_a7c71872
comment
An episode of Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century features puzzles which, when solved, inject the solver with mind-controlling nanomachines.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_a7c71872
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_a7c71872
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1.0
 Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_a7c71872
 Doom as Test Prize / int_a825da3e
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_a825da3e
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On the plane of Amonkhet in Magic: The Gathering, those who complete the Trials of the Five Gods are killed and made into zombies to serve in Nicol Bolas's undead army. (To be fair, the losers are also usually killed and made into zombies — just ordinary mummies to be used around the city rather than Bolas's super-soldiers.)
 Doom as Test Prize / int_a825da3e
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1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_a825da3e
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1.0
 Magic: The Gathering (Tabletop Game)
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Doom as Test Prize / int_a825da3e
 Doom as Test Prize / int_a895e9d2
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_a895e9d2
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In Portal, the "reward" for completing all nineteen test chambers is a one-way trip into a furnace. Chell narrowly escapes the trap, however.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_a895e9d2
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_a895e9d2
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 Portal (Video Game)
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Doom as Test Prize / int_a895e9d2
 Doom as Test Prize / int_ac8b90f5
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_ac8b90f5
comment
In Mage: The Ascension, the final adventure book reveals it to be the case for Technocracy. If you are competent enough you get promoted and the best of the best join the head council. This is an honest promotion. However, the technocrats, despite their claims to the contrary, are also mages and Clap Your Hands If You Believe works much stronger for them than for humans. Since the guys at the top are never seen and just operate as The Omniscient Council of Vagueness, the image is so ingrained into the whole organisation, that anyone promoted all the way up ceases to exist as a person, joining the Hive Mind haunting the council room.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_ac8b90f5
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1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_ac8b90f5
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 Mage: The Ascension (Tabletop Game)
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Doom as Test Prize / int_ac8b90f5
 Doom as Test Prize / int_ace263fa
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_ace263fa
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The heroes in Deltora Quest and its anime adaption enter the Rithmere Games, a combat tournament, for money to continue their travels. The winners are secretly drugged, taken to the Shadowlands and forced to compete in Gladiator Games for the Shadow Lord's entertainment.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_ace263fa
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1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_ace263fa
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 Deltora Quest
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_ace263fa
 Doom as Test Prize / int_b569bd06
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_b569bd06
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Dungeon: The Early Years: Marvin decides to take Herbert to his former martial arts master to cure Herbert of his Non-Action Guy tendencies. The master takes Herbert along with another student, who very quickly proves himself superior to Herbert in every way. On the final day, the teacher congratulates him... and stabs him, explaining that the student could have one day surpassed him. Marvin doesn't take it well.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_b569bd06
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1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_b569bd06
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1.0
 Dungeon: The Early Years (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_b569bd06
 Doom as Test Prize / int_b5942ee6
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_b5942ee6
comment
In an episode of Timon & Pumbaa, the two are forcibly enrolled in a fitness camp by a wolverine. Timon blows it off, but Pumbaa takes advantage of the opportunity and becomes very fit, finally managing to make it through the camp's obstacle course. The wolverine then explains that he is actually a carnivore, and prefers to eat the fittest, healthiest specimens, which Pumbaa now qualifies as. However, Pumbaa is now so athletic he manages to escape the wolverine fairly easily.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_b5942ee6
featureApplicability
1.0
 Doom as Test Prize / int_b5942ee6
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1.0
 Timon & Pumbaa
hasFeature
Doom as Test Prize / int_b5942ee6
 Doom as Test Prize / int_bff01809
type
Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_bff01809
comment
One Warhammer short story depicts a mighty warlord of an incoming chaos invasion holding a contest between several of his chieftains. They each take their war parties and go to the wastelands to impress him. When the protagonists win, it turns out that the reward for winning the warlord's favour is being killed and ritually stuffed — as he fully expects to die in the massive war he is going to, his favourite chieftain's party is to act as his vanguard into the afterlife. Subverted when it also turns out that they knew all along and did their best willingly, considering it an honor — chaos barbarians are like that.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_bff01809
featureApplicability
-0.3
 Doom as Test Prize / int_bff01809
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1.0
 Warhammer (Tabletop Game)
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Doom as Test Prize / int_bff01809
 Doom as Test Prize / int_c2297a9c
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Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_c2297a9c
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In one Judge Dredd story, a couple apply to emigrate from Mega City One to an off-world colony. There are vastly more applicants than openings, so the couple pull every dirty trick possible to get on the short list, and eventually get to go the colony world — which is a barren, frozen hellhole. It turns out that all of the colonists are people ruthless enough to lie, cheat, steal, or even murder to get to the supposed off-world paradise.
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Doom as Test Prize
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Doctor Who:
In "The Dalek Invasion of Earth", the Doctor realises that his cell contains items that will allow him to escape, and does so. Oops, it was an intelligence test to select people to be turned into cyborg zombies.
The logic puzzles that people must solve in order to gain access to "The Tomb of the Cybermen" are designed so that the Cybermen can convert anyone clever enough to get in into Cybermen themselves.
In "The Krotons", the Krotons select the most intelligent people among the native population to extract some form of mental energy from them. They then kill the person by spraying them with something, implied to be an acid.
In "The Five Doctors", only those who survive crossing the Death Zone and navigate the traps in Rassilon's tomb can ask his disembodied presence for the gift of immortality ... which he grants by transforming them into a living sculpture in his crypt, thus eliminating such dangerously-ambitious people from Gallifrey's power structure.
In "The Long Game", journalists look to get promoted to floor 500, where it turns out they're fed to the Jagrafress.
It's stated that this happened offscreen in "A Town Called Mercy", where a group of Kahler warriors competing to be the best for a secret mission actually got experimented on against their will and turned into cyborg weapons.
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Doom as Test Prize
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The Well Speaks To Me: In They Watch from the Walls, Mr. Pumpkin invites children, most recently the protagonist Carrie, to brave his Haunted House "attraction", promising a surprise to anyone who makes it to the end. It turns out that the "prize" is being stuffed in a cage and sold to pedophiles.
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Doom as Test Prize
 Doom as Test Prize / int_d5338541
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In Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva, the characters are entered into a competition with the prize supposedly being eternal life; however, not only are the losers apparently killed (though it's later revealed that they're simply sent away), but the eventual winner is planned to have their personality replaced with that of the host's dead daughter.
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Doom as Test Prize
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In the Give Yourself Goosebumps book Escape from Camp Run-for-Your-Life, the prize for completing "The Selection" (a series of very dangerous activities) is to become a slave on an alien planet named Xentron.
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Doom as Test Prize
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In The Hammer and the Cross the viking Ivar the Boneless receives a coded message of challenge, consisting of a sheaf of wheat, an eel, and a caponnote castrated rooster. He offers a reward to anyone who can explain it, which an English slave does: The sheaf stands for Shef, commander of the enemy army, the Eel for Eel Island, where the challenge is to take place... Even though he doesn't actually say it, this implies that Ivar (who has that nickname for a reason) is a eunuch, a deadly insult. The slave demands his freedom as a reward, which Ivar grants. As soon as he leaves, he gets a spear in the back.
 Doom as Test Prize / int_e6a56fbc
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Dying Earth: In the short story "Guyal of Sfere", Guyal is ordered to act as the judge in a contest to determine the most beautiful maiden in a village. He notices that the girls, rather than dressing their best as he would expect, seem to be actively trying to hide their beauty, and that the ones he eliminates from contention seem relieved rather than disappointed. After he picks the winner, he learns that the "prize" for winning the contest is to be sacrificed to a demon.
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Doom as Test Prize
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Fantastic Four #254 has the Four visit the world called Mantracora in the Negative Zone. There, high priest Taranith Gestal selects the finest minds among the people for an unspecified higher purpose. In fact, Gestal is an alien that needs fertile minds to power his spaceship's organic computer; many people so selected are shown in a comalike state, with their heads wired to a central processor.
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Doom as Test Prize
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In the Babylon 5 episode "A Day in the Strife", an alien probe arrives at the station and offers unimaginable technical gifts to anybody who can answer a series of scientific questions. It's actually sent by an unknown culture to identify and destroy any other culture advanced enough to hypothetically be a threat to them.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Doom as Test Prize
processingCategory2
Competition Index
 Doom as Test Prize
processingCategory2
Death Tropes
 Doom as Test Prize
processingCategory2
Index All Along
 Doom as Test Prize
processingCategory2
Victory and Defeat
 The Punisher MAX (Comic Book) / int_79a08ea0
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Doom as Test Prize
 Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. / int_79a08ea0
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Doom as Test Prize
 Flash Gordon (1980) / int_79a08ea0
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Doom as Test Prize
 The Last Starfighter / int_79a08ea0
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Doom as Test Prize
 School and Society Through Science Fiction / int_79a08ea0
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Doom as Test Prize
 The Historian / int_79a08ea0
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Doom as Test Prize
 The Tripods / int_79a08ea0
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Doom as Test Prize
 Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Theatre) / int_79a08ea0
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Doom as Test Prize
 The Well Speaks To Me (Video Game) / int_79a08ea0
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Doom as Test Prize